The shift follows a boost in Publicis’ regional resources over the past two years, enabling the agency to effectively manage an account of HP’s magnitude. After winning HP’s global creative account at the turn of the millennium, Publicis’s regional network was deemed too nascent to handle the business; hence the decision to house it at sister agency Saatchis.
The transition has taken place over the last 18 months, and includes several hires for Publicis’ HP team, including planner Richard McCabe and creative lead Bruce Watt from Saatchis.
In addition, Publicis COO Matthew Godfrey confirmed that several account servicing executives had moved with the business. “It is additional business for Publicis Worldwide, but there are also additional costs and responsibilities,” he said. “We’ve been able to build a regional infrastructure over the past few years, and have now become an agency which is good at multiple things.”
